Plans For Halloween
by Karianasan
Summary: Set in PNSD Pup Named Scooby Doo era. This explains why the gang are so good at costume changes. Halloween Holiday Fic. This was started in 2006, whoops. Enjoy!
1. Plans For Halloween

There is certain things that are known for being consistent. The sun always rises and falls through out the years. Rain always falls downwards from the sky, though sometimes a bit sideways but always from the sky down to earth. And just when you're late for work, there will always be traffic...

So when something as set in stone as the two known cowards are said to be looking forwards to Halloween, the scariest time of the year, the others grew suspicious at the unnatural statement. The one time of the year all the monsters, ghouls and ghosts come out to play, Shaggy and Scooby were actually looking forwards too.

This deserved some looking into.

As the holiday grew closer, the two seemed to get more and more excited. Though they were not telling the others why. Something about a secret which just made the rest of the gang want to know why. Finally, an opportunity arose for the others to investigate the strange happenings. Their parents, each having their own things that day had contacted the Rogers and asked if each of their kids could stay over while they were away for the day. With nothing major planned, that could not be done in the comfort of their own home, the couple agreed. It was always a pleasure to help out their friends, plus the kids were all friends too.

Velma was the first one to be dropped off. Her parents were off to do some last minute shopping before they holidays wrapped up. Entering the house, Shaggy's mom was always nice and provided her with a snack as soon as she came through the door. A habit she no doubt picked up probably due to her own sons constant hunger cravings that just bled over to guests in general. Nibbling on the apple slices, Velma thanked her and proceeded to follow her instructions to find the boy in question. Shaggy and Scooby seemed to have squirreled themselves in their room, doing something that his mother didn't seem to concern herself with. She muttered something about boys being boys and left it at that.

She felt almost like a robber as she crept up the stairs and made a path to their room. They had been acting so strangely that it had her curiosity perked, they felt like they were up to something. It was like they were acting like all those bad guys, they had caught in the past.

Her urge to spy on them over rode her usual polite nature. Normally she would have made herself known but she felt like sneaking today. The door was already a tab bit open, so she couldn't resist the curiosity to take a peek before saying that she was there. Just a peek wouldn't hurt… Could it?

The room was a mess, as usual, but it seemed more composed of clothing all scattered on the floor then it's usual mess of junk. It looked as if all the normal junk was pushed out of the way for all the strange clothing in the middle of the room. Peering in deeper, she found two forms on the other side of the main clothing mass in the middle. It was hard to make out the two she figured for being Shaggy and Scooby, since they seemed to be bending over and searching the pile for something.

Maybe… Maybe something happened to Scooby and Shaggy?

Her mind played games with her as she looked on. The muffled voices didn't seem like Shaggy or Scooby's voices. They were deeper and seemed to be laughing at something. Maybe it was someone who broke into their room and is going through their stuff?

She quickly shook the thought out of her head. She was getting paranoid over probably nothing. And she even didn't know why she was hiding. She was getting to act just like Fred when he read one to many of his uncles magazines.

"He would be shouting something probably about 'rampaging mole men from the earth's core' or something silly like that. Raiding earth's clothing supplies to force the earth to buy from them at whole sale."

She murmured to herself in amusement, joking about Freddie's normal outbursts. Though her murmurs had been loud enough to get the attention of the two forms huddling inside the room. As they rose and stood up straight, Velma's eye grew wide. With a stifled scream, she staggered back falling to the floor, hitting the door open. With a long creak, the two forms were revealed.


	2. Clues Falling Into Place

Standing, a bit bewildered at the sudden shriek and the door being pushed open, was Shaggy and Scooby. Each of their outfits were splattered in colors on a white suit that covered most of them. An outrageously poofy afro colored wig adorned both of their heads and a bright red nose sat in their middle of their faces. They were a pair of clowns.

"Velma! Like… Velma… We're sorry…"

Shaggy stuttered, quickly pulling the curly bright yellow wig off his head revealing a mangle of his normal brown hair. He removed the nose and pulled open the Velcro that kept the little kid clown suit together. Scooby only had to remove a wig and nose before he was de-clowned, though he did it quickly for Velma's sake. They both moved to comfort their Coulrophobic friend, helping her up from the floor. It took a bit to calm her down; Shaggy led Velma to his messy bed and had her sit on upon it as she relaxed down from her scare.

"…I…I don't like clowns…"

She muttered with a bit of a shake. She didn't forget what had given her that fear. Though her family had replaced the set of encyclopedia's that got shredded, her memory of the event wasn't so easily repaired. Once she got a grip on herself, she turned to the two fussing over her.

"What…. Were you even doing? In," She paused to look over at the discarded yellow wig on the floor. "...That?"

She couldn't even bring herself to say it. She knew there was no logical reason to be so scared. But that was the thing with a Phobia. It's an abnormal, and unnatural fear of something. Logic had nothing to do with it. Shaggy looked over and kicked the wig into the rest of the clothing on the floor, trying to hide it in the mess that occupied the middle of the room. He then looked over at Velma, feeling guilty for giving her a scare.

"We were planning for Halloween. What are you like' doing here? I didn't expect you for another hour or so…" Shaggy commented. His parents let him know before hand that she, and the rest of the gang were going to come over today. But she had come earlier then he anticipated and ruined the surprise before he was ready for them. He wasn't even sure if he was going to let them in on it as well, but thinking ahead, it was better that they knew about it and didn't warn their parents ahead of time of his masterful plan. Velma looked over the massive pile and her mind was a whir of thoughts. Pieces were slowly falling into place as she was figuring out Shaggy and Scooby's master plan, as only one who knew their thinking could puzzle out from all that she had seen.

"…My mom dropped me of early. I think I'm getting an idea of what you might be planning…"

Velma's interested was definitely peeked, but she would wait till the others arrived before she thought any further ahead. Shaggy grinned deviously, seeing as it didn't take much to get where he was going with it all.

Moving back to the mass of scattered clothing, he picked up a tattered shirt and vest. Looking them over together, he pondered the combination. Scooby had already disappeared under the mass in the middle. With clothes going flying, Scooby emerged wearing a stylish gray Italian hat and a blue-ish gray dress jacket. He made a scowl that made Velma laugh.

"You just need a white wig Scooby, and you would look just like Al Cabone, that skeleton bad guy we caught that one time at the game show. Oh what was it called... "For letter or worse"? I think that was it."

Scooby looked down at himself and agreed. With a flurry of more clothing, Scooby disappeared into the pile once more in search for the last part of his costume. It took only a matter of time before he returned with his complete outfit.

"R'wah! R'wah!"

He made a big grin and sneered, attempting to look as much as the bony ghost they had captured once before. Shaggy looked over at the sound and yelled, quickly jumping across the room and into the lap of Velma. When she heard the yell, she moved instinctual to catch the airborne boy, catching him expertly. He looked down from her arms and sighed in gratitude.

"Like' Thanks Velms."

"Don't mention it." She said cheerily, letting the older boy down back on the ground. Scooby laughed, and soon was joined by Shaggy. It was a really good looking costume, and would be perfect for his plan.

"Good one Scoob. Let's put that one on the complete pile."

Velma found herself, wandering about the room and moved to the piles of clothing to investigate. A lot of the stuff on the piles was old clothing, or ones that seemed to be borrowed from Shaggy's parents. Some of the other one's she recognized, were past Halloween costumes Shaggy never wore, since normally he was afraid to go out on these days. But this year was different. This year would be the start of something special. They could just feel it.

It didn't take long before Fred and Daphne were dropped off. They found Velma had also joined the fun and was trying on costumes. She even had gotten over her earlier fear and was wearing the yellow wig on her head. Though she was wearing a white dress that was far too long on her. Trying to look like a famous actress but failing due to she was too short and wore glasses.

"What… Velma…" Daphne said with an exaggerated sigh at the younger girl. Hands resting at her hips and she looked in from the door. She rolled her eyes as she critiqued the younger girls attire. "That Wig SO clashes with your eyes."

Fred snickered at the comment, though looking over; the bright yellow did look odd on Velma since she normally was a brunette. The younger girl just chuckled and tried to get out of the dress. It was a bit of a struggle, but with some rolling on the floor she was able to extract herself out of the outfit.

"This… Is like' the problem. I could really use all of your help on this." Shaggy said, trying to get everyone's attention in the room.

"Fred. Close the door, will ya? I don't want the parents listening in."

Fred looked over at the door then back at Shaggy. With a nod from the other boy, Fred walked over and closed the door. Coming back, Shaggy motioned everyone to come closer, so that the ears on the walls didn't over hear his brilliant plan.

"Like' here's why I asked all of you to come over. Though. You were going to come over anyway, but still, you're here now." He had at one point planned to keep everything to himself and Scooby, but what were friends for but helping you with pulling off masterful plans?

"I need help. This year is a big year for us. I over heard that our parent's, as long as we are all together, will let us to go trick-or-treating all on our own. And you know what that means…"

Shaggy grinned. He could just taste all the candy that was awaiting them. Endless streams of candy flowing out of bags aplenty. As many as they could get their hands on... But there was a slight problem to it all, as problems always were in the way of greatness.

"...But… We are only allowed to go on this block. Thus, a big problem."

Shaggy looked disappointed for a second, but this is why he needed their aid. The more people, the more candy; and the more to be able to pull off his devious plan he had thought up of.

Velma then shifted to take over, since Shaggy hadn't been able to wait till Fred and Daphne to arrived, to let Velma into his plan. Being impatience to share his brilliance of the situation, he told her as they played around and made outfits. It was better anyway, she was more skilled at explaining things then he was. Easier to leave it to the expert then try his hand at it, and that wouldn't be any less of his plan. So it was all hers for the explaining.

"…The problem with a limited area of occupation is the quantity of the products wished to be obtained in the set proximity, to optimize the acquired goods. "

"Eh?" Pondered Fred and Daphne together, confused at what Velma had just said. Even Shaggy and Scooby knew what she was talking about but was caught off guard by her way of putting it. Velma smiled and reworded it, because sometimes she just liked talking over their heads for a bit. But she always explain better afterwards.

"The problem is we only have a few houses to get candy from."

"Ohhhhhh…" They all said in chorus. Finally getting it.


	3. Master Plan

"So… Like'… here's the plan gang!" Chimed in Shaggy, moving towards everyone to explain his idea. Stealing Fred's line in the process.

"Basically we have one night to gather as much candy as we can. But there is the problem of the parent's only giving out candy once to each kid in costume. So what we need to do is fool the parent's into thinking that we are not the same kids. Like, say we are going to visit Velma's parents. If we all go together, then we have wasted an opportunity. But instead, if we go in scattered groups, we can have more people go through without them noticing."

Velma picked it up for the more complicated portion of the plan.

"Here's an example of what we can do to maximize our candy output. Say Fred goes first. He visits my parent's house and is able to be visually recognized by my parents. He could have two of us with him, but in a costume that hides our faces. While Fred vocalizes the 'trick or treat' the other two can stay quiet, say Shaggy and me for this example. If anyone asks who they are, all Fred has to say is that there are some friends visiting. It's not a lie, but it's not the whole truth either. If they get to curious, it would be easy to give the excuse that there are more houses to hit, and that you were in a hurry. Then, the next shift I would be seen, and then Fred could dive into a full body costume and Scooby could be the second while Shaggy and Daphne hit another house. So we could have two groups going at once, we could get multiple stops per house and in less time as well."

Velma beamed, understanding and realizing that the idea wasn't that hard to pull off. It as perfectly logical and the only problem was getting in and out of the other costumes and not letting the parents get too curious. If they caught on, then they won't be able to pull it off the next year. Which would give them more then enough time to reflect back on the previous actions and movements to refine it for the year to come.

"So, Like' you guys understand what I'm thinking of?"

Shaggy inquired Fred and Daphne. Fred nodded his head, musing over the ideas in his head, while Daphne had gotten distracted and moved to the costume pile. She had gotten the idea and was moving into the next part, Costumes. She picked it up like it was going to bite her, before she got disgusted with it and dropped it back down into the messy pile.

"Ewww… I'm not wearing one of those… Things…" She had to ponder for a second to find the right word to call it. "Those are sooo last year. Wearing parent's old clothing. A few of these can stay, or you guys can wear them. I have a few more I can bring."

Picking up her cell phone, she dialed a number quickly, her fingers moving by their own accord to the memorized number. It took seconds before the other side picked up.

"Oh Jenkins? Please bring over my Halloween assortment that I had picked out and bring them over Shaggy's residence. Oh, no… You don't have to bring them in, just drop them off in the trailer trunk and we'll get them. Thank you Jenkins!"

She hung up the phone with a click. Moments later a horn sounded downstairs, meaning the trailer trunk had been dropped off. Daphne skipped to downstairs and opened the door to the front of Shaggy's house. The rest of the gang followed and was amazed at the small trailer trunk seeming to be filled with clothing. With some grunting, the gang was able to hike the trunk to Shaggy's room before his parent's got to suspicious of the heavy thunk'ing sounds coming from the stairs. Once inside the room, and cut off from the rest of the house, Daphne opened the trunk revealing a mass amount of costumes. Mostly, frilly dresses like princesses and fairies, but there were a few more generic ones, like ghosts and ghouls. With a nod of satisfaction, Daphne was more content at her selection then the meager pile that Shaggy had. Plus it was more organized and pretty. Just how she liked it.

"Now that is a costume collection. Alright, I'm all set."

Daphne said with an approving look. Velma and Scooby were the first to investigate the new selection; while Shaggy seemed to be sizing up the new addition.

"Hmmm… Velma, do you think this will be enough to pull off the plan?"

Shaggy inquired. He wanted to make sure his plan had no flaws. So that they could… How did Velma put it…? Optimize their acquired…. Candy….Ness… Yeah. Less complicated words, but it meant the same.

Velma looked back to the plan leader and got a thoughtful look on her face. Moving to the side of the room, she pulled over her suitcase that included her pop up computer. Punching in a few numbers she quickly calculated the required amount of costume combinations to maximize the candy output from each house and a proper schedule of house sequences to reduce the suspicion of the surrounding adults to their actions.

"If done correctly, which I do not advise that we try accomplishing all this year, is thirty five combinations of the five of us, to each house."

Velma turned her computer, which had been covered in one to two letter combinations to show who was the person visible, to the people who were wearing the full body costumes. Eliminating the repeating patterns to make the selection come out to her calculations. It also included a small picture of the block and how many, and who was in each house.

"With the neglecting of the haunted house of Miss Skylark, that leaves us eleven houses to hit, including all of our houses but Daphne's place. Since she lives on another block. We are constricted to working this plan upon this block, so eleven houses are the one's we are going to be able to acquire candy from. And even if we accomplish half the amount of combinations per house, that means approximately seventeen and a half pieces of candy per costume, per person, per house. So at the end of the day, if we accomplish even half the amount of costume combinations we can get a grand total of nine hundred sixty two and a half pieces of candy for the whole block overall. That is close to 193 pieces of candy for each of us."

Though the gang got lost in all the calculations, even with the help of the diagrams, the numbers were enough to make even Daphne drool. Which she quickly cleaned up with a hankie for just such occasions, but it still had been there. What kid didn't like the idea of candy, and lots of it? Shaggy and Scooby's jaws could be found resting on the floor, making a small puddle of slobber at the prospect of all that candy.

"Like man oh man Scoob. Just thinking about that makes me hungry."

Shaggy gathered up his bottom lip from dragging on the ground and put it back in place. Scooby's mouth seemed to roll up back into position, with a click of his teeth as his jaw closed as he agreed with his scruffy haired companion.

"Rah Rah! Ret's r'eat!"

It was about lunchtime anyway, so the gang padded down to the main room of Shaggy's house for a homemade lunch for them all. Shaggy's mom served them, noticing their ravenousness appetite as they all dug into the sandwiches.

"Dear… You guys must have been working really hard up there? Working up such an appetite. What are you doing up there that made you guys so hungry?"

Shaggy tried to stammer up an answer, but Fred jumped to cover for him, complimenting Shaggy's mom on the lunch. "Wow Mrs. Rogers! This is a great sandwich!"

The others jumped to divert Shaggy's mom from asking more questions. The last thing they needed was a suspicious family member to spoil the whole thing.

"Great sandwich indeed. You must tell Jenkins the recipe. You making it just perfectly."

Flattered Daphne, smoothing it on Mrs. Rogers as well as she had put the peanut butter upon the bread, laid on evenly to compliment the equally well spread jelly. Preening from the flattery, she lost track of her asked question, with relief from the whole gang. She left to the kitchen to write up the proper peanut butter and jelly instructions to give to Daphne to give to her butler when she saw him.

"Phew… Like' that was close. Good job guys."

Sighed Shaggy, feeling more at ease with his mother less inquisitive to their actions. That made it easier to plan. He leaned over, to be able to whisper and be heard and not let his mom find out.

"I think that we should relocate everything to the headquarters so there will be a less chance to be discovered. After lunch, Daphne and I will distract my mom, while you guys get Daphne's truck out and bring it to the HQ."

Everyone seemed to be in agreement when Scooby seemed to be against it. Shaggy looked over to his canine companion with an inquisitive look.

"Like' what's wrong old buddy old pal?"

"Ruh Uh!" Remarked the Dane, paws crossed in front of his chest in a defiant nature. The gang all turned their attention to the hound to get an answer.

"Why not Scooby?" Questions a confused Freddie.

"Raggy's rad." The pup said with a nod.

"Shaggy's dad?" Echoed Daphne, puzzled at the response he had given.

"Oh… I know. I forgot my dad was going to be repairing that one wall in the HQ… Remember? We had that one hole and there was a draft coming in and let in those hornets in and they made their nest? Well, my dad said he was going to take care of them for us this weekend. And if we hide everything there, he might find it. Nice save Scoob." Shaggy gave a thumbs up to his partner, who grinned smugly.

"But if we can't put it there, then where can be hide it?" Velma milled over the current predicament, unsure their options. Since they could not hide the costumes forever if it was in one of their houses. Their parents could get curious if the gang kept coming over and hiding in the room for hours. They needed a safe place to stash it all. But Scooby seemed to have not let go of his smug expression. He was practically beaming. This didn't go unnoticed.

"You got a plan Scooby?" Fred inquired the pup. With his muzzle splitting open with a grin, he revealed his genius idea to them all.

"Rah Rah! R'y r'lace!"

"Like' that's perfect!" Laughed Shaggy, smacking himself in the forehead for not thinking of the solution sooner. Velma's eyebrow raised as she watched the two celebrate before she translated Scooby speak and realized what they were talking about.

"Oh… Scooby's place. His dog house."

Once Velma made the idea vocal in human speech, Daphne and Fred got it as well. It was a good idea. No one went inside Scooby's doghouse except Shaggy and Scooby, and occasionally the gang. After the run in with the sludge monster, it let the gang in to the splendor of Scooby's dog house. It was almost as big as Daphne's house, or at least seemed like it. It was far more spacious then the outside would suggest.

With the location of their hideout for the plan acquired, Daphne and Shaggy moved to distract his mom while the rest of the gang discreetly, as a bunch of kids could with a rather large trunk, got the costumes out and into the doghouse. They made sure to look out for any overlooking parents from other houses before they ducked inside and put away the trunk. The rest were a lot easier, since while in the kitchen, Shaggy had snuck some trash bags and brought them up to his room to get the rest of the clothes bagged and out. If his mother would ask, he would say he's taking some things out of his room to clean it up. His mother thought it was a miracle that he was actually cleaning, and didn't question her good fortune. Allowing them to have a clean get away with the goods.

Halloween came all to soon for the gang. They had spent the few days they had preparing doing drill runs as a group. Scooby standing in for the parent's at the fake houses they made out of left over boxes that had been scattered around the doghouse. The main problem they all found was trying to get in and out of costumes fast enough to be able to hit the next house. It had to work like clockwork or the schedule would get messed up. Though Velma had thought ahead and classified each costume combination with a difficulty and calculated the time it took each member to get into said costumes. They all figured that with the one person being recognizable, they would get the more complicated outfit and the other two traveling would just need a more simple full body costume and when they were ready, would assist the main person with their costume. Scooby had three main exits from his doghouse. The main one everyone saw, which was also the way in, and two more hidden exits on the Rogers property. Those were more secluded and were better for the change ups. People would see them enter the doghouse, but never exit. So if anyone were suspicious, it would look like the gang was hiding in the doghouse rather then exiting out the hidden passage.

With all the preparations ready, the time was upon them.

"Alright gang, let's go!"

* * *

_Forgive me anyone who is actually GOOD in math and notices if I messed up in my calculations. I'm FAR dumber then Velma, even when she was that young, so feel free to correct me. I'm really not good in math. So my appologies! : bow: Toki_


	4. Halloween

Many Halloweens later, the weeks leading up to the final day seemed to have changed very little since all those days ago. As the sun was on it's slow descend downwards, the night was awaiting in the shadows to come out and lead forth the charge of the holiday. Because only when it was dark would all the ghosts and goblins come out, including a bunch of familiar monsters.

"Good evening Mrs Johnson. Is your cat behaving today?"

Walking up to the edge of the fence that split their two lawns, a older gentleman leaned upon the wooden boundary to greet his next door neighbor as she finished up some last minute decorating. With a exhale and wiping of her brow, the woman smiled over at her friend.

"Yes, she usually stays indoors on these kinds of days. To many kids running around for her liking. So it's usually pretty quiet around here except for next door."

Thumbing a finger, she pointed to the other side of her house. Looking almost innocent with the strange lack of decorations, sat the house of Mystery Inc. But while the front of the house looked untouched, the backyard sat dark and ominous. And she would bet her cat, that inside was just as bad as the back. The older man laughed as he looked at what she was pointing to.

"Do you think their 'friends' will be coming over again this year? I think they know by now we are humoring them, but it's still nice to see people with so much life now a days. I hear all this practice has helped them on some of their mysteries as well. Funny, that. And it all started here."

The older man smiled, he remembered that first day all those years ago when they were just pups themselves. At first he didn't even know, but it felt odd to him. The year after that, it was even more fishy but he couldn't put his finger on it. But they were good at their plan, and the quick costume change was what threw most of the adults off for a few years. But after a while the parents caught on too the plan. Though by the time they had, the gang was old enough to travel out further.

But there was something, almost habit about hitting their old block a few times with the plan that had worked for so long. Usually finishing off the night with a few rounds. The adults bought extra candy by now, keeping track of just how many times they were swindled out of it.

"Oh you're just as bad as them, Nate McNallie. Really, handing out maps to the kids on Halloween? What kind of treat is that?" The woman laughed at the shop keeper that was her neighbor.

"What, where does it say that a 'treat' has to be candy? But I did include cookies of all the different states. I bet by the end of the night they could all make the whole USA with them. I've always had an odd fondness for maps, I don't know why." The man pushed off the fence and held up his hands innocently.

"Maybe I'll made it an atlas this time."

"Oh, you. Haha. Oh, it's getting dark. Better get ready. Have a good Halloween Mr. McNallie." The woman smiled and waved, heading herself to get into her witches costume. Pity her cat would be hiding all day. Mr. McNallie waved and headed back to his house. Stopping at the door, he got into character as the mad scientist as he hung on the door frame and play acted a sneer to some of the early little kids running by his house.

"Happy Halloween. Trick or treat if you dare." 


End file.
